A welcome home for Paul

Paul is back from Scotland for a week or thereabouts so I put on a Bollywood dinner for the family last night so that they all had  the chance of a chat with him about his latest doings.  Lots of  people were interstate or overseas so it was a small gathering of 8 adults and two littlies, Sahara and Dusty. Joe got back from Canberra a day early so he could take part.

We all had a good time.  Timmy actually went out and got some more champagne.  The food was good as usual, with much garlic and cheese Naan consumed in addition to the main courses. I had Balti lamb as I often do.  Joe had his regular chicken dish.

The people who had the best time of all were Sahara and Dusty, who were both vocal and running around like mad things for a lot of the time.  I said to Suz that her children were entertaining us all and she replied that they would probably sleep well that night.

The only other people in the restaurant were an Indian family.  The lady of the family watched us a bit so when Sahara came and gave me a cuddle that was closely observed.  With her blonde plaits, fair skin and mostly-pink attire Sahara looked very pretty and the Indian lady gave a big smile as she watched Sahara cuddling up.  Nordic looks  are undoubtedly the world beauty standard -- for all that it is politically incorrect to say so. Even a lot of Japanese ladies blond their hair.

A game that the kids invented was to crawl UNDER the long table and get from one end to the other between people's legs.  We all assisted the merriment by moving our legs about to obstruct them. So there was always a cry of triumph whenever they got to the other end.

Ken and I talked a bit about voting systems.  Ken had the idea that you should have to BUY a licence to vote -- so that only people who are really interested in the issues would vote.  I think most of the world already does something not too different.  In most countries people not interested just stay away from the voting booths on polling day.

When Paul arrived, he spent the first 10 minutes in the room interacting with the kids before he sat down.  Like me, he is very child-oriented.  Russell was very jolly, as he usually is and Ken as usual talked mostly to Anne.  They have similar entertainment interests.  Maureen could not come due to illness.